July-August 2014 | 30 YEARS IN THE MAKING

Nationally acclaimed artist Kevin Fitzgerald, an Eastern Shore resident for three decades, will debut his work in Ocean City this August

Even though artist Kevin Fitzgerald relocated to the Eastern Shore 30 years ago, he will exhibit his evocative landscape paintings in Ocean City for the first time this August.

The Ocean City Center for the Arts will host the exhibition through the month of August, with an opening reception on

Friday, August 2, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. The public is invited to attend and meet the artist.

Fitzgerald draws inspiration from the landscape of the Eastern Shore and its fertile fields, verdant marshes, big skies and wild ocean. His paintings — often done “plein air,” or out in the open — fall somewhere between representation and abstraction, capturing the feeling of the place more than the details.

“The landscape, both cultivated and wild, can serve as a reminder of the beauty and power that exists beyond our grasp,” Fitzgerald said. “There is always something happening in the landscape before us.”

Fitzgerald sees in the coastal landscape what others don’t: the break of a wavecap on a night ocean, the diversity of lush greens in a stand of trees, the silvery gleam of light on a body of water. His technique has evolved to a masterful level where his paintbrush can put down what his eye sees and his heart feels.

The Washington, D.C. native, who creates his work at Longbranch Studios in Newark, Md., has achieved national acclaim. Yet, Shore residents rarely get to enjoy a show dedicated to Fitzgerald’s work and never one in Ocean City. That all changed when the new Ocean City Center for Arts opened its doors in 2013, providing a venue matching the quality of Fitzgerald’s art.

“It was important to bring Kevin’s work home in this beautiful new space,” said Rina Thaler, executive director of

the art center.

The spacious Thaler Gallery on the ground floor will be filled with 30 of Fitzgerald’s finest landscape paintings. To celebrate the event, the art center is publishing an exhibition catalog of the show that will be available for purchase. While Fitzgerald’s original paintings sell for thousands of dollars, the catalog on its own will be an affordable mini-exhibition of his art and a memorable keepsake.

Fitzgerald is excited, and humbled, by the opportunity to present his work in his own neighborhood.

“The artists of Worcester County are a vibrant community,” he said, “and many of us are inspired by the stimulations this place brings.”

The Ocean City Center for the Arts is located on 94th Street, next to the big blue water tower. The galleries are open daily from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m.